Can't Catch Me
by Q u e e n V a m p
Summary: The choices we make define us, they say. What about the choices you don't know are choices? Teenage flukes and farce murder trails can really mess up your life. AU: villain!Artemis/hero!Cameron
1. my enemy, my weakness

**Title: **Can't Catch Me  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Humor, Angst, Romance  
**Fandom: **_Young Justice__  
_**Couple: **Artemis/Cameron, Article Jr., Frostbite, CamArt, Winterwonderland

**A/N: **it's been a while since I wrote anything so I decided to post excerpts from my Artemis/Cameron fic that I've been working on for far too long. So this will be a series of one-shots in chronological order and coming-of-age arc practice. It's AU. Obviously. Sadly.

* * *

_"Never show your enemies how much you care . . . because then they have power over you."_

Anne Blankman _Prisoner of Night and Fog_

* * *

They live in a world of precision in the form of perfectly preformed axel kicks, gunshots, and bombs with timers that go _tick tock tick tock_ like the White Rabbit's clock as he's stuck in Wonderland limbo, running in circles and circles and circles until he finds his Alice.

It's a precision world, but not always an accurate one.

In this world, someone always messes up—sometimes _big_ time—and then blood is spilt and bones are broken and spirits are razed in order for the disorderly to maintain their own twisted form of command. It is law among their kind, a rule, a rite; Cameron has long since accepted that.

But Cameron Mahkent never thought he would be such a person.

All he knows is that his prints were found where they shouldn't be. He was torn from bed early Sunday morning, and informed that he would be tried as an adult Monday afternoon. Monday night a message arrived by guard under his dinner tray—instructions and small white pill for honorable discharge.

Cameron never found much use for it.

(_Lights are flashing and his blue eyes are illuminated and his orange jumpsuit is baggy around—well, all of him since he's such a lanky guy. Reporters are everywhere, everyone wants his picture and everyone wants his statement_—)

He had been a good soldier up until now. He did everything he was told, everything that was necessary, everything to _survive_.

He is skilled in ways of survival. He had the drive, the equipment, and the power to do so.

Cameron Mahkent is a survivor, and a student of the best of the best.

(_His picture is everywhere and his famous statement released from the police is plastered under it in inky lettering._ _"I didn't do it!"_)

Sadly, that wouldn't always be enough to protect him. He wasn't ordained into the Shadows; he was merely a student of them, still learning their ways. The Shadows could do with one less student, his meta-gene aside, he was disposable.

Their world was a double-edged sword, hurting and helping, business and pleasure, assassin and murderer, and he was snarled in the crossfire; the police and civilians, the Justice League and the League of Shadows.

He hadn't killed that man. He didn't need to go to a maximum security prison. He didn't need a thousand expensive lawyers or a phone call to his AWOL dad because he _didn't_ kill anyone. He'd never killed anyone, but that too is its own secret.

(_Screams rip through the crowd around him and the police escorts look up to see what the cause of the noise is_.)

An arrow stabs into the ground a few yards away. The feathers are yellow and the body is black, and under the feathers is a blinking bright light that's becoming faster and faster with each passing of the seconds.

With trained ease, and years of sparring combat under his belt, Cameron instinctively pushes his body back—catching two bodyguards by surprise—and gets low behind the guards like human shields and huddles, waiting for the explosion that follows two seconds later.

All in perfect precision.

.

.

.

Artemis Crock drops two smoke bombs down into the chaos and descents down from her perfect hiding place: right above their noses. The tree is stabbed full of limbs easy for climbing and hiding and perching and waiting for the past nine hours for your detained best friend.

The smoke is thick and slips into her lungs and tears up her eyes a bit, but she's immune to it unlike the others. Cameron is too.

She flips down from her hiding place, stepping off the shoulders of a scrambling guard and drops into the thick fog.

"Cam!" she calls through the smoke and all around her people (cops, press, and civilians) are coughing and hacking, she can barely hear his voice when he calls back to her.

Artemis finds him on his knees, heavily bound in chains, and a collar she wasn't expecting. _This could be a problem. _She pulls a stiletto blade from her belt and shoves her way towards him.

"Cam!" she kneels beside him and jimmies the shackles for a moment and they come free, then gets to work on his legs. Her hands are shaking from adrenaline and the urgent sense of _hurry _embedded into her skin. Artemis glances around at the blind cops clawing at their eyes in horror like she once had the first time she was exposed to the gas. Her eyes were red and bleeding afterward, months later she was able to withstand it—totally immune.

"Artemis . . ." Cam chokes and touches his now free hands to his collar. His eyes are bruised with shadows from lack of sleep. "This. I can't use my powers with this on."

"Does it have a tracker?" she asks, stiletto in hand and ready to use it, but—with time of the essence—she would rather run and deal with it later. She touches the collar.

"Yeah, and it shocks too!" With that statement Cam's expression twists from confusion to withering pain as the collar gives him a few bolts to subdue him. He doesn't scream—for her benefit or his—he grids his teeth. Artemis recoils when she receives a shock too, but she recovers faster, and whirls around toward the cop with the device in his hands.

It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

Artemis levels the stiletto knife—sparkling silver at the edges of her gloved fingers—takes aim and throws. The blade embeds itself into the man's wrist and the remote falls. Artemis lunges at him like a jungle cat on an injured boar, going for the throat initially.

Hand-to-hand, face-to-arrow; it didn't matter how Artemis fought because she would always win. When she attacks by propelling herself at her target she has the undoubted element of surprise, when she has him on the ground, she's already won.

But Artemis is young and she's new, so when the seasoned war veteran kicks the back of her knees and she goes down like a sack of potatoes with the air knocked out of her lungs, she's thoroughly surprised. She's use to living in a world where everyone is stronger than her, but here—in the center of Gotham—she barely expects someone to pull the wool over her eyes.

Except Batman, but she hardly expects him to make an appearance.

Before the cop can deliver the last blow, he's shot down and Artemis has to roll out of the way when he lands. There's a forked weapon embedded into his back, wedged between two bones on the trail of vertebra running the length of his back: a Sai.

_Shit! _Artemis stumbles to get back to Cam, her foot slips as she scrambles up and turns to find Cameron unconscious on the ground, an officer standing over him—gun in hand. Her breath catches on the acidic sweet taste of smoke.

A police officer takes aim and fires, and for the first time in her life Artemis is like a dear in headlights watching the shiny metal dot fly towards her.

She is tackled herself and the other body on top of her rolls until they're at the feet of the crowd behind an overturned caution sign, even further from Cameron, but hidden for now.

The Cheshire Cat is grinning at her through the arcane of smoke, but she knows the face behind that it anything but gleeful. "Are you insane?" a muffled voice questions angrily and before she can answer the cat yanks her into the crowd. Jade's grip is crippling, aside from the grazed bullet wound on her shoulder. She's shaky with adrenaline. "You're in way over your head."

Jade grabs Artemis's arm and presses a button on her belt.

The Sai she threw into the back of cop explodes and the bright flash drops GCPD into a state of stupor that allows one masked girl to drag away her kicking and screaming sister.

.

.

.

Cameron's legs are shaking and his palms are sweating.

Artemis. Where was Artemis? Was she okay? Did Jade manage to get her out alright? She'd come swinging out of nowhere in high-tech mask and low-tech outfit and dragged a domino-masked, black-clad Artemis out of the line of fire to safety.

All these questions running through his mind he barely has a take a moment and—he nearly groans—remembers his training. _Relax, _he threatens himself, ice spiking in his gut and comforting his rapid heartbeat. _Don't let them get to you. Relax, look around. Take inventory. Think before speaking. They're bound to send someone in soon._

He opens his eyes. Ice-powers are a no because Artemis had not been able to get the collar off. _Focus, _he swallows. _Shadows taught me shit about meta-genes. All my training is in regular old Cameron form. _He continues his inventory of the room: four grey walls, no windows, one door, and a table. He's in the only chair and that's wielded to the ground right now. He gives a pull to the cuff on his wrist—steel—and pushes his thumb and pinkie finger under his hand. He pulls again and nearly slips out.

_Okay, there's always plan—_, he grinds his teeth and balls his hands into fists. _This is going to hurt just a bit. _

He let the cuff slide up the skin of his forearm, testing the cool metal against his skin, and then yanks back. His elbows hit the back of his chair and both his wrist snap out of their sockets.

"God—" he growls out the rest and slips his hands out of the cuffs. Useless but free, he'll have to fix that quick. Okay, now his feet should be too—

"I'm just wondering, how did you plan on snapping those back in?"

Instead of a cop, or FBI agent, or some whacky reporter, standing in the too small doorway, looking very out of place is none other than Batman. And his sidekick Robin. But Batman! Batman was here to _interrogate_ him! Albeit, instead of thinking of the various ways the Dark Knight will break his bones, smash his head into the table, and drop him from great heights—CSI-style—to get answers out of him, Cameron's mind is still whirling.

Putting the space between his thumb and pointer finger on his chin, he pushes down gently at first and then harder. The wrist snaps back. He does the same with the other hand. The snaps are like music and the vigilante-hero looks dually impressed.

Cameron shrugs, twisting his wrists and hoping he hadn't done it wrong. "It's easy. I could show you some time."

"Do all your friends know that little trick too?"

Anger snaps up inside of Cameron. _Friends? Is Artemis here? Did she not get away? _Batman's mouth is an unmoving line, the cowl giving away nothing. Cameron panics.

"Where's—that girl?" He nearly caught himself there, but kept rambling. "Do you have her in custody? She didn't do anything."

Batman's mouth twitches at the corners and Cameron knows its useless. Artemis had tried to intercept a high profile villain (or at least, that's what the tabloids were calling him) on a medium security transfer. She defiantly wasn't innocent, especially when she started releasing arrows and Jade's smoke bombs. But Jade had come and Jade had gotten her out.

Or, at least, that's what he _thought._

"Look, I just need you to tell me something—_anything—_throw me in jail now, I don't care. Just tell me if she got away or not."

Everything is quiet and Cameron can only stare at the Batman as his sidekick stares shocked at the panic in his voice. _Damnit, _he bites the inside of his cheek, hard. _Rule number one of Shadows: don't let your enemy know your weakness. _

"No," the man's voice is calm and deep, really deep; he must do that on purpose. "She got away." Cameron's shoulders relax instantly, ears ringing with the words. "I don't think there's a chance you'll tell us who she is?"

Cameron's eyes narrow into icy slits. He may have given them his weakness, but he won't let them have her. "When Hell sets fire," he snaps, but curbs the sarcasm—just a little—because they had just given him some good news. If it was true.

"Girlfriend?" the sidekick pipes up with a snide smirk and Cameron shoots the glare in his direction as he pushes down his earlier thoughts on the subject.

"Robin," Batman chides disdainfully, but he only smiles cheekily back before fixing his eyes on Cameron.

"Is that why you're here? Because if that's it, then that's it; I'm not telling you about her any more than I can say I shouldn't be here in the first place."

"And why's that?"

Flaring up, the ice that threatens to ebb at his fingers is stifled like water smothering flames and Cameron snarls. This collar is a hypocrisy—_clever_, but—total mutiny against his body. "Because I didn't do anything! I haven't killed _anyone._"

Batman regards this with a rising brow and takes a seat at the table with him. "That's where you're right. You didn't kill that man."

"Yes! Thank you . . . wait what?"

"You didn't kill that man, but I know who did. I need you to trust me and do exactly what I say. Can you do that Cameron?"

Cameron nods but couldn't imagine what he's getting himself into.

.

.

.

A warm breeze laps at Artemis's tear stained cheeks and with the rocking of the floor she barely realizes she's on a boat before the ground under her arches and crashes down. Blood warm water splashes across her and she slips down the boat before tight ropes around her wrists and ankles keep her plastered to the front of the boat like a trophy.

Blinking away the salt water, Artemis assesses her surroundings. She tied down to a boat, or the bow of a boat; a blindingly white cruise boat. Around her everything is bright, warm sunshine and a blue, blue sky and palm trees and all she can think is: where the fuck is Gotham?

"I was beginning to wonder when you'd wake up!" a male voice calls and she turns her head as much as she could to see Eric's smiling acidic green eyes peering at her over his cheap sunglasses. He's holding a fruity martini glass and dressed for the beach.

"Eric!? What the fu—!?"

A shadow looms over her; one with alluring curves and big hair: Jade. She stares up at her sister who's wearing a black sarong over her black bikini, looking very displeased with the exotic surrounds as Artemis is and she tilts her head like her namesake, all glittering eyes and slowly curling lips. "Have a good nap, sis?"

Yesterday—today—two days ago—_she doesn't know—_comes back on her like the waves of the blue water below and Artemis lunges up, anchored back by the ropes and screams. "Take me back to Gotham!" she shouts.

"You need to get it together." Jade hisses and kneels to untie Artemis. "If you go charging off like that again _I'll _kill you _myself_." Her ankle is free. "So then I can throw you in the Lazarus pit and kill you _again._" Now the other ankle, Artemis swings her feet away from Jade, cautious and ready to run.

"Mom would kill you . . ." she trails off. "Where's Cam?"

Jade ignores her.

"Jade."

Still nothing, so she retaliates the only way she knows how.

Artemis kicks out and Jade dodges, glaring at Artemis for good measure and drops the piece of rope in her hand—surrender, but not. She's given up. "He's fine! You, however, are not."

"I'm perfectly fine!"

"Yes, I can see that."

Artemis yanks her hand free and sits up before leaning down to untie the other wrist.

"Where are we?"

"Isle of Shadows, this is where they used to train assassins. Now it's where you will gain your membership to the Shadows. Master's orders, at my request." Jade closes her eyes for a moment and exhales. Artemis knows that the betrayal if stabbing through her gut."It's very secure; no one will know we were here." Jade answers crudely and survives the area around them critically. "This is where you'll be staying until all this blows over."

"What?!" She moves too suddenly and the rope goes taunt; she swears under her breath before looking to her sister again. "Jade, no. Cam—!"

"Do not concern yourself with him, Artemis. Remember: look out for yourself, first and foremost."

"I _am,_" she nearly snarls. "I'm _fine. _Jade, I _need _to know if Cameron is—"

"Cameron," the name is twisted in her teeth and spat out like a curse. "Will be _fine_." _Fat chance. _Artemis forces herself to relax and unties to the rope before getting up to stand; Jade glares warily at her. "You, however, have been compromised by the situation and are to be detained until the situation has been handled."

Artemis shoots her a look that says "screw you" and whirls towards Eric. "Eric! Take us back to mainland!"

Jade looks over her shoulder at her, and then to Eric who gave a stern 'I-will-not-get-mixed-up-in-a-Nguyen/Crock-debate-thank-you-very-damn-much' look and went back to sipping his fruity drink and scanning the aqua blue waters for other ships.

"Eric!" she growls, but knows it's useless and looks to her sister. "What about mom?!"

"I can forge you're handwriting and otherwise it doesn't matter. Cameron's trial should be over in a few months, three tops."

"And dad?" Artemis raises a brow at her sister and can _feel _the tension rising in Jade like a volcano about to erupt.

"This is none of his business. _I _raised you; _I _know what's best for you." Jade snarls and Artemis is forcibly reminded of being stolen away into the middle of the night, taken to Sensei and the training and how Jade had always went looked out for her—in her own special way. In a way, Jade was trying to protect her from their father. Artemis couldn't hate him because she didn't very well know him as anything but Daddy who gave her piggyback rides and presents on her birthday. Jade knew him only as Sportsmaster who smacked her across the face once when she was thirteen and she had been feeding that steady hatred with everything he hadn't done.

"Jade . . ." Artemis draws out but her sister is not swayed—it hadn't worked anyway since she was three and mom and dad hadn't started fighting yet. "Please. I need to know Cam is oka—"

"And he will be!" Jade snaps hands balling into fists at her hips. "I know that boy; I know he didn't kill anyone. He's too weak; he doesn't have the ability to take a life, even if he wanted to." That Artemis knew was true, during their initiation onto training it had been Artemis to make the fatal blow to their target and she gave Cameron the credit. "And he's a coward; if he rats on you then I'll take matters into my own hands."

At the insult, Artemis lunges—exhaustion, hunger, and rage boiling her insides—and tackles Jade to the bow and bats off her sister's claws. "Don't say that about him! Cam would never—" Once again she's cut off and her sister is smiling wider than her namesake.

Jade's eyes narrow. "That may be true but still, little sister, you should know better than to lose your temper!" Jade grabs Artemis's wrist and flings her body up; sending Artemis cart-wheeling over the safety rail and into the ocean water. The ocean swallows her up, smacking her with it surface. The sound of a motor humming in her ears, Artemis eyes the wide propellers cutting through the warm water and pulling her in.

She pushes away from the boat with her feet and struggles with her arms and heavy wet clothes to get further away until her lungs are screaming for air.

Breaking the surface another splash hit her face: a backpack.

She glances back to the boat that Eric was driving away and Jade was still standing on the stern.

"I'll come and get you when you're ready to leave!" she calls and waves mockingly like the time she first dropped Artemis off at preschool and threatened not to pick her up since she ate the last donut earlier that morning.

This situation feels startlingly similar.

Artemis swims after them as the boat propels out of sight and she screams when she can no longer find it on the horizon.

Artemis's eyes adjust and she glances around her, finding a patch of wilderness that must be the Isle of Shadows. There's a thin tendril of smoke curling up from the vegetation.

Shadow training, Crock code: survive.

Without much a choice she swims towards it. _I'm sorry Cameron._

* * *

**I have been waiting to post this since my sophomore year of high school. **

**Again, I love everything about this little world I created because I love these characters so much, I want to make their lives a living hell. And that's why I write angsty Artemis/Cameron. And fabulous Jade, and snarky Eric, and motherly Paula and two-face Lawrence. Sue me, but you have to review first. **

**Next update soon. **


	2. with a little help from my friends

**Title: **Can't Catch Me  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Humor, Angst, Romance  
**Fandom: **_Young Justice__  
_**Couple: **Artemis/Cameron, Article Jr., Frostbite, CamArt, Winterwonderland

**A/N: **it feels like someone stole my mojo.

* * *

_"You are going to break your promise. I understand.  
And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart,  
so that I will not hate you."_

—Catherynne M. Valente, _Deathless_

* * *

_6 months later_

Cameron breaths free air for the first time in months. Batman and Robin are standing behind him, taking notice that Cameron had already changed into a regular pair of jeans and a G-Force tee shirt. He felt a nostalgic at first sight of the clothes the warden had brought him—sweats and a wife beater, the clothes he had been wearing when he was taken in. They were still bloodstained and torn from the struggle he had put up.

If he closed his eyes he could see the darkness him and Artemis had lain in, shoulders brushing and whispering about tomorrow's plans when the door exploded inward, pouring a sickly yellow light into the room. Cameron's initial reaction was to push Artemis behind him, but the officer—he could make out that much—had him up by his shirt and tried to shove him against the wall. Then Artemis had pulled her knife, and they had gone for her, and Cameron had iced up and—it had been a mess from there.

He can't very well keep them, he knew that, but with the rest of his clothes and belongs AWOL these were the last things he had.

Robin had shown up earlier with a bag of clothes—all new with the price tags still on them. Cameron had stripped out of his jumpsuit and into his new clothes.

"Everything fit alright?" Robin asks.

"Yeah," Cameron shoves his other clothes in the trash. "Their perfect. Thanks. And I want to thank you, both of you, for everything. Really," he smiles a little. "I'd be barbeque without you." Robin grins at him, in his civvies—as he calls them—and dark aviators to conceal his identity. Batman is still in cowl and costume, nodding.

"I don't want you talk to any reporters so I've arranged for you to be privately transported from here by another League member." Martian Manhunter is standing a few steps behind them, his slanted red eyes are fixed on him like he's trying to solve some puzzle, but the corners of his lips are turned up kindly.

"Cool," Cam grins. He and Robin are taken to a back entrance, in camouflage-mode, and packed up into a ship. "Wow . . ."

"What? No one on your end have one of these?" Robin teases and Cameron smirks.

"Nope."

.

.

.

Tittering on her own two legs, Artemis had tracked her way back to her Gotham apartment without causing so much as a stir. It was amazing what the general public missed when they were so wrapped up in their own lives. Artemis had been able to hitch a ride on two dump trucks and a semi and turned her head so to not be noticed.

She had slipped through this concrete jungle like a stealthy cat.

Artemis swung herself into the apartment window she jimmied open and presses her foot down firmly on the shag carpet to muffle the noise. Her breathing is shallow, low, and with doing so she manages to quell her hummingbird heart.

She steps quickly through the house and into the bedroom her sister and her share.

She steps through and it feels like a portal to another universe, time-travel back to months from now. Everything on her side of the room is precisely as she left it the morning of Cameron's transfer. Blankets, clothes, shoes, books: all strewed about like she had simply evaporated.

Before she can take another step a cool blade presses against her throat, which she was expecting and stands dormant and waits for her sister's cool drawl that had been ringing through her mind like a mantra.

"Artemis . . .?"

"Hello Jade." Artemis turns to face her—look the same as always wearing her mini green kimono and wild hair saying she'd just gotten in, or had been sleeping—and gathers the remains of her strength and satiability before snapping back her fist, and punching her sister square in the nose.

.

.

.

Although he had made quick friends with the Boy Wonder, his 'friends' are a tad more cautious towards him—Speedy, mostly.

They all call each other by their hero names, except Aqualad/Kaldur'rahm who's mask-less and Atalantian. And Cameron knew for a fact that Robin hasn't relinquished his real name to anyone—as Kid Flash has told him, but he suspects the speedster was in the know after the smirk the two shared afterward.

They had invited him to quietly celebrate his release, and Cameron is wondering—not for the first time—why he's here.

"So, why are you so conflicted with this?" Robin asks again, making an ass out of himself by showing-off his one-armed handstand. Speedy suddenly takes interest and looks up from his arrows to listen.

Cam glances up at him from the TV and shrugs like his father would have—icy cool, nothings a big deal, fire within. "I know people who'd sooner cut my throat than anything else, but I also have others in the Life I genuinely care about."

Though his father would never say that, he was too guarded.

"Yeah, and some of those people _genuinely_ don't care for others." Robin grunts and rolls back to his feet before stomping over to his suitcase.

He returns with a bent piece of charred metal that was a weapon at one point.

"That cop," Robin says. "The one that assassin stabbed with this. He lived but he can't talk or walk anymore." Cameron's eyes set on the Sai—silver metal coated thickly black from the explosion and the hilt melted—and thinks of Jade and then Artemis again. "Are these the people your loyal to?"

"Cheshire . . . she was only looking out for that girl."

"Girlfriend?" Robin asks yet again.

"Will you stop with that?" Cameron snaps, but smiles, all sincerity aside. "Seriously, it's not my liberty to say. You know too much already, the _world _does my dad and every ice villain and all of Cheshire's allies must be out to get me."

"We can protect you."

"And I know all the holes in the system." Cameron sighs. "And I know that my options are limited, but I still want to think it out."

"You want to return to your old life?" Kaldur questions.

Cameron chews the inside of his cheek guiltily. "It wasn't all bad. I hav . . . _had _a family, friends, some colorful places to live—" He remembers Crystal, cold and beautiful, teaching him how to wield his powers and telling him lame jokes. _Be as hot as ice._

"So, you would go back?"

It doesn't matter who said it, Cameron could still feel his chest concave with desire to run. _Go back, go back, _go back to what? The Shadows, the Life, his friends and family? In all honesty, who in their right mind would leave their family? The people who had taken care of him his entire life, who trained and raised him.

_Trained and raised, _he bites his tongue. They had raised him to be a weapon, yes. A weapon, but—he nearly felt disgusted with how much his chest ached with longing. He still wanted to go back. It not for the life than for his friends, for Artemis. She had to be worried . . .

Realizing he waited too long to answer, he says, "There's no way anyone's gonna welcome me back."

"What about that girl?" Speedy asks and raises an arrow for emphasis. "The one with the arrows, how does she work into all of this?"

Artemis hasn't been in contact, not in a crowd, no smoke signal, no anything to let him know she's thinking of him. And that scares him. Churns his heart in the cage of his ribs and withers it away. "I don't know . . . I haven't heard from her. Every—everyone must be trying to keeping her away for her own good after last time."

_Unless she thinks I already betrayed her. _

"So, you're still loyal to them?" Wally asks, chewing on another piece of jerky.

"They're my _family._"

"Who tried to kill you last month," Robin intones, and gives a guilty smile last minute.

"My dad's trying to keep face—that's important. I can forgive him for that. My mom's dead. It's not like she can be much help. All my friends are on the 'bad side'. My friends are my family. I'm stuck with you guys." He feigns a chuckle and twirls the Sai around his fingers, like Jade had taught him when they were younger.

It's off-kilter and he's out of practice, but the others watch in fascination. "They raised me, nursed me when sick, and trained me." He tosses the Sai back onto the couch with a silent _thump. _

"_And _they tried to kill you."

Cameron locks eyes with Robin. "You have to understand how my family works. We are the Shadows—at least, some of us are—and in order to operate around well, you guys, we have to be flawless. No liabilities in the system. No endangerments, no muss, no fuss." He glances around and turns his body to face the little table set up behind them, removing the pointless glass bowl he tugs the beige cloth lain over it to make it lay smooth. "It's like this," he gestures to it. "And I," he pinches the tablecloth in the middle so it creates a hill. "Was a wrinkle. A big one. My arrest put everyone in danger; so, obviously, I had to be taken out."

And if it took them this long to try anything, that meant they either had bigger fish to fry or someone from his old life was helping him out.

Being born into the life was hard. In his opinion, he never had much choice he was born with the abilities, so he took after his old man. Training day in and day out, was torture, and it was training by the best. And once his father and Sportsmaster met, it had become like a game. Take your kids to work day. Eric left him behind in field training with a broken leg once, but Artemis shimmied out of a tree to aid him and they were both punished.

Wally, Speedy, and Robin are staring at him silently and Cam looks back at them.

"Hey, seriously, if they wanted me dead, I would be. I know that." He coughs into his fist. "And the girl, she's got powerful allies of her own, so their probably vouching to keep me alive, or vouching to kill other wrinkles. Either way, she's alright, I'm alright. Everything will be fine."

"How do you say that?" Wally asks.

He smiles confident and cool, and doesn't say it's just a hope. It's his only wish on the stars, or his final prayer to help him sleep at night.

.

.

.

Artemis's nose twitches and her head turns into the smell of fabric softener and plush fluff; a pillow, her pillow. Someone's in the room with her, someone who's been there since she fell asleep: Jade. Her body makes a dark outline in the room.

"Jade . . ." her voice his rough and husky from lack of use.

Her sister turns to her and Artemis can just make out the traces of blood lingering above her lip.

Artemis feigns a smile and sighs. "I was almost afraid to sleep. I didn't know where I'd wake up."

Jade snorts and touches the side of her face and then her forehead, like the time when she caught West Nile Virus in Alaska after various mosquito bites. Jade had always dedicated herself to keep Artemis healthy.

"How did you get back to Gotham?" Jade whispers.

Artemis sighs into her pillow again and her head is spinning from the lack of sleep and the drugs Jade probably shoved down her throat while she was sleeping. Her shoulder's ache, so does her back. "I stayed on the island and trained with the other Shadows." Even as she says this Artemis cannot find the words to sum up what had happened on the island and, in truth, did not want to.

"Go on," Jade orders, almost impatient.

"I knew the trial must have been dragging on, so I began to explore and . . . well the wild life isn't so friendly." Artemis laughs and it hurts to do so. "I found a ship in the harbor of the island—some weird tourists looking for a vacation spot—I escaped on there and hid in an air vent until they got to Australia and switched onto an American ship. The rest was a truck ride with some circus animals through Georgia."

Jade nods, as if she'll accept the story for now and looks back to her vintage _Alice in Wonderland _poster on her side of the room.

"Jade . . . you owe me." Artemis whispers. "Cameron . . . is he dead?"

Jade glares at her sharply and continues to do so until she can speak. "Worse." She whispers and Artemis notes her sister is gripping the bedding next to her, digging her fingers into the purple duvet. "He's gone straight."

She stares at her sister, wondering what that meant. "Wha—?"

"He swapped sides, he went good, jumped ship, betrayed all of us. He joined _them._ The Justice League."

.

.

.

Cameron had not told anyone this, but a month ago, he broke out of the hotel and ran through Gotham in the dead of the night. He had run far and purposeful, ducking into shadows to not be seen and keep his eyes peeled for familiar faces. Fear spiking his every step because he knew, he _knew, _that if he was caught he could kiss all chances of a clean slate away.

He went to the apartment he had been staying at for the last year and a half, where all his stuff was and his father's belongs were still packed away into boxes. The place where he and Artemis had been staying the night he was taken.

He's never had much finesse for picking locks, but with shaking hands managed it.

When he opened the door the apartment was empty and everything—even the guns under the floorboards—were gone.

All that remained was a shoebox full of jigsaw pieces, and a note with his name on it.

.

.

.

Eric arrives a week later with a case and a grim smile. "Hello Art, I brought something for you." He seats himself at the edge of her bed. Artemis had always seen Eric as a brother with laughter in his eyes and cruel jokes to play. Even now, in his full Black Spider regal and his hair slicked back, he looked like the golden haired boy who beat up the bullies who picked on her in grade school.

"Hey Eric," Artemis sits up, getting her strength back after a few days rest felt like magic on her bones, but her body still felt stiff from sleeping on such a soft surface. She would often wander out of the room and sleep on the kitchen floor for the first few nights, but Jade's skeptical brow exiled her to her room. She shifts as the bed did.

"So, your sister tells me you became a full member of the Shadows." His eyes lock with hers and he seems to find her answer there because he speaks again. "And you wanted to see Cameron?"

"I need to say goodbye." She says and doesn't let the emotion touch her voice, and Eric—for all he's worth, he isn't immune to her tricks—grins.

"That's what I wanted to hear." He turns the case over and sets it on her lap. "Get dressed we're going to stretch out your new muscles."

.

.

.

Cameron stands on the balcony of his bedroom at the swankest Gotham hotel feeling the breeze against his skin. He knows he probably shouldn't be out in the open, and knows that hotel security—even at a hotel as nice as this—is laughable at best, but he feels a waning sense of security with a few chosen members of the Justice League next door.

Also, after months on incarceration, he wants to breathe the fresh air.

His arms are iced from the elbows down and its cool and warm and so natural with his skin he had missed his ability.

He almost wants to laugh because Batman really is giving him some leash here. No collar, minimal security. There has to be a catch or a 'thank you for cooperating over these past months and asking to join the team since you're now so changed' shebang here. Batman seems too paranoid to trust this much.

Yeah, there's probably a hidden camera around here somewhere.

Cameron's eye catches a flick of some movement below him, on the next balcony, and his assassin training kicks in. His shoulder lax and he rolls his head into his chin, pretending to inspect the smoggy city skyline while looking for that dark shape.

"Hey Cameron." A liquid black shape lunges into his peripheral and Cameron has a blade out and at its throat. "Whoa, is that any way to greet an old friend?"

"_Eric_?" Cameron growls and his eyes narrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Just chaperoning, you detestable son of a bitch," Eric chirps cheerily, but Cameron can hear the venom in it. Eric kneels on the stone balustrade, head tilting like a puppy. "Planning a little jump?"

"What, no? Eric," Cameron is at a loss for words.

"And may I just say, I didn't believe them when they told me what you did."

Cameron lowers his arm, pulling back the ice until he's pale and human again. He knows it's stupid, at a time like this, but Eric was his friend. "I didn't do anything."

"So you didn't kill that old lady or you didn't betray us?" Eric's back arches up like a cat's. Eric always had a way of expressing how he felt even when his face was covered. "Because it looks like you did both, but—_whatever. _This isn't my visit. Mine will be hella more personal."

Cameron suddenly has a headache. Between Eric and Jade, their twin Wonderland babble could out-annoy even the _Riddler. _"Eric what the holy hell are you talking about?"

"Just pay the fuck attention, listen well and use small words. She's had quite a trip." And with that Eric lunges backward and down the face of the building to a much lower balcony.

"So, I heard you went straight."

Cameron whirls around to find yet another figure emerging from the shadows on the balcony across from his. The shadow crosses the gape with a light footed leap and holds her pose on the stone balustrade for a moment before touching toe down on his balcony with ease.

"I almost didn't believe it." The voice is deep and throaty like one of those wannabe seductresses, but this actually works for her. Inching further from the shadows Cameron falls into a fight stance, ready to take on whoever comes at him.

For a moment he thinks it's Jade in her Cheshire persona, ready to beat him within an inch of his life and drag him back to the Shadows, but the mask is different. The elaborate design of tiger stripes cover further of her cheekbones and redefined the upward tilt of her eyes is not the flashing white grin, but full pink lips. Her steely grey eyes peer at him through the eyeholes.

The woman is small and lithe, wearing an orange and black second skin body suit that cuts off to show off her midriff and 'give her flexibility' and comes up all the way to her neck. The sleeves are cut off at her shoulders and thick bi-fabric elbow length fingerless gloves make up for the lack of padding on her arm. Aside from how dreamy the cat suit is, Cameron takes a moment to assess her visible weaponry: black utility belt, hunting knife strapped to her left thigh, collapsible bow, quiver full of arrows . . .

Arrows.

"Artemis?" he whispers and the girl touches her mask in regard, but quickly slips it off. Her long golden braid that swung between her shoulder blades like a pendulum swishes over her shoulder with the motion and with black matte nails she tucks a loose golden strand behind her ear.

"Hey, Cam."

"Artemis . . ." he hasn't seen her in months, but not much has changed aside from her unusual blasé veneer and a cool chill runs down his back to mingle with his icy bones. Artemis is an enemy now, a bred and trained assassin and ghost from his old life he was asked to ignore. If Jade had not come for him . . . then had she? "What are you doing here? Are you working for the Shadows? What—?"

She smiles a little and presses a leather clad finger to his lips. He recognizes the look in her eyes brimming with such love and his heart wrenches remembering all the nights he had slept soundly without thinking of her. "One question at a time, Cam."

She sounds out of breath. Her cheeks are flushed pink for the chill of the night, but under that her skin is golden tan. She hasn't been in Gotham.

"Where've you been?" he whispers and Artemis's steel eyes turn sad.

"I . . . Shadows, they kept me locked up."

"Oh,"

She's warm, like the night and the suit is probably making her sweat like crazy but she seems cool as well. Her position is relaxed and her shoulders are rolled back in a lax demeanor, very much like the big cat she resembles and he knows she's really wound like a spring.

"I came to wish you congrats."

He cocks a brow at her.

"You managed to get away, I'm proud of you." She nods and her face is illuminated by the moonlight. High cheekbones, slanted eyes and golden blonde hair; her Vietnamese features blend well with her French ones making her look like some mystic creature from the pages of some fairytale.

"You're not here to kill me?" He whispers, but he knows he has to ask, and Artemis's cold steel eyes narrow.

"I'm not going to let that happen to you, Cameron. Don't worry."

"Artemis why are you—?"

She shushes him and he hears the gentle sound of footsteps. Quickly, the two jump to hide wedged between the door and railing with feather light steps they were taught since childhood.

The footsteps pass hurriedly down the hall and disappear into another room.

After a second the two glance at each other for a moment, Artemis sitting on the railing and Cameron flat against the door. They're use to being in close proximity to each other, but it had been a long time and as Cameron moves to correct it Artemis lays a hand on his shoulder.

"I need to be brief—there's something's," she pauses for moment and exhales. "But you just need to know, we need to forget about each other. Don't act like our paths won't cross because you know they will. You don't know me, I don't know you. Just like everyone else." She pauses and withdraws her arm like it's a bad thing for her to even be touching him. "It's for the best for you—and me." She slips her mask back on and flickers her braid over her shoulder.

Cameron's breath caught in his throat and Artemis isn't even looking at him. "But, Artemis—"

"Cam, you gave up on the Life, you know as well as I do that they'll come after you." She interjects sharply; her eyes were like smooth cuts of steel. "When you gave up on the Life; you gave up on me and everyone else." There's a bitterness in her voice when she says this and Cameron can see it in her eyes.

His hand catches her wrist and she tries to yank it away. His hold is stronger. "I went back; I went back a few months ago. I went back to the apartment looking for you. You weren't there, nothing's there. What's going on?"

Artemis gives a final tug to her arm and Cameron's fingers loosen, each like a weight tethering him back to his old life.

"I was detained." She growls this and then her voice softens, "Listen to me; this is for your protection and mine. Stay away from the Shadows."

And like that, his best friend slips into the night.

He watches her descend, quick footed and so sure of herself like she always was during a jump. Eric lunges to meet her and they disappear down the face of the building. He can't see them after that, but he keeps watching, hoping for another glimpse of liquid black or blonde. _So this is our forever, huh?_

Cameron puts his back to the balcony, head heavy with thought. He steps into the hotel again, drawling the doors shut behind him.

"Friend of yours?" He whirls around to find Speedy, rising from his place on the couch, bow and arrow in hand.

* * *

**I'm very, very sorry about the wait on this. I meant to update sooner . . . but I didn't? Leave me a review, pretty, pretty please? I'll update at this rate with few supporters and for those of you who have reviewed: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR JOINING THE INSANITY, YOU ARE MINE NOW. **

**I swear its just the editing that's killin' me.**

**Next update soon. **


	3. no good deed

**Title: **Can't Catch Me  
**Rating: **T  
**Genre: **Humor, Angst, Romance  
**Fandom: **_Young Justice__  
_**Couple: **Artemis/Cameron, Article Jr., Frostbite, CamArt, Winterwonderland

**A/N: muwahahahaha!**

* * *

_"No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love  
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world."_

—"Blinding" by Florence and the Machine

* * *

"Well?" Artemis finds her sister on the couch in her robe, flipping through a magazine, effortlessly looking like she wasn't waiting for her.

Artemis rips off her mask and throws it against the wall and begins clawing at the gloves on her arms. "Fine." She snaps and Jade glances at her. "Okay, bad."

"Did you hurt him?" she asks slowly.

Artemis glances at her and back again to the wall where her mask fell.

". . . no."

"No?" The magazine slaps onto the coffee table and Jade rises to her feet. Her height not exactly towering, but her stature was what brought men twice her size to their knees. "_No_? He betrayed us and I save his sorry ass for _you, _and you can't even throw a punch? Artemis what's wrong with you?"

Artemis brushes her off. Her anger deflated by Jade's numbing rage. "Well, I didn't hurt him physically . . . mentally."

She walks over to the wall and picks up the mask, noticing that it's flawless and orange and striped as if was before. It's an ugly thing, and not at all practical.

"Where did Eric get this?"

"Same place I got mine." Jade replies. "I can't have you copying me, so I made it a half mask, but . . ." She catches Jade's eye, noting the rare hint of earnest in her tone. "You like the suit?"

Artemis nods though it feels a little tight due to her newer, stronger muscles she acquired from island living. It's not uncomfortable, but she could already foresee complications. "I want a full-body suit."

"Whatever you want, but I have to insist that you wear the mask. I don't want to risk you getting caught in the open. Last time was far too risky."

Artemis wants to argue but her mind toys with the words. _Getting caught in the open. _

The mask may serve her well, she realizes. It's a mask, a cover, a new idea.

Just like the her she became on the island, stronger, willing to do anything to survive.

The old Artemis was too soft towards Cameron, but she knew she couldn't shut out that part completely.

Artemis would care for Cameron and all other trivial things, but her other persona wouldn't.

"Hey Jade?" she asks. "When does mom come back?" The question has been hovering in the back of her mind for weeks now, the release date of her mother after so many years. She's surprised that she wasn't counting down the hours.

"Two weeks." Jade answers after a beat.

"Good," Artemis pulls the mask back on and looks back to her sister. "I think I should pay tribute to Master, it has been six months, I think we'll need more money to keep three people living here."

Jade nods and unknots her robe to reveal her own mini kimono and body armor. "I had the same idea." She flourishes the Cheshire mask from behind a couch pillow and slips it on before they head out.

.

.

.

"You're lucky no one saw you." Batman growls, arms cross his broad chest and the lenses of his cowl giving away no emotion.

"You saw me . . ." he mutters and a fist slams down onto the desk.

"I don't think you realize how serious this is." He hisses. "Luckily, I had a video installed—"

"Yeah, I figured."

Batman glares and looks down at Cam. After a long moment he speaks again, his voice decisive and, almost, relenting. "If I'm not mistaken she already went over how things are going to be with you?"

He had seen the video and in his mind he heard the conversation as it played out between them. Looking back he looked like such a child, mumbling her name every few seconds. Unable to believe it was her. Cameron looks down at his hands, thinking of Artemis and everything she said. This was a sacrifice he had not thought about. "Yes."

"Keep it that way." And like that he's gone, but Robin is still here; in civvies again. His Armani glasses give away nothing in his eyes.

"So . . . you got dumped?"

There's a part of him that wants to lash out, destroy everything in his path. It's his rage that had been lying dormant for months like a sleeping dragon. And he _wants _to let it out. He really, really wants to.

Ice crunches at the bends of his knuckles and he sets his teeth, before storming out of the room and into the training area. Maybe Conner wanted to fight.

"Big time."

* * *

**I finally worked out the kinks in the story. Ready to roll. Enjoy the ride. **


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